The Supreme Court (SC,) on the 28th of August, will hear petitions filed against the revocation of Article 370, which provided a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
According to sources, opposition parties like the National Conference, the Communist Party of India [Marxist] (CPI[M,]) the Indian National Congress (INC) and others filed the petition.
The opposition parties filed a petition after Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India, on the 5th of August, announced the scrapping of Article 370 and introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019. Both the decisions were accepted by many parties of India and also got the approval of Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India.
Left leader Sitaram Yechury, a leader of the CPI (M,) also filed a petition against the detention of Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, a political leader in Jammu and Kashmir who is detained.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S.A. Bobde and S. Abdul Nazeer will hear the petitions.
The petitioners alleged the Government of India’s (GoI) decision to scrap Article 370 is illegal.
The petitioners justified their allegations and said under Article 370, orders like scrapping the Article or reorganising the State are only acceptable with the assent of the constituent Assembly of the State.
A petition read, “The President, acting on the advice of the Union Cabinet amounts to the same constitutional functionary taking his consent to effect a fundamental structural change without consultation or concurrence of the persons affected by that change, or their elected representatives. This is contrary to the rule of law, and is manifestly arbitrary.”
Advocate M.L. Sharma, Shakir Shabir and Soyaib Qureshi also filed petitions regarding the same.
Apart from political leaders and lawyers, Anuradha Bhasin, the Executive Editor of Kashmir Times, also filed a petition and asked the SC to direct the GoI to lift the ban imposed on the media in Jammu and Kashmir.
The bench of three, led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, will hear all the petitions on the 28th of August.
Stay tuned for further updates.
